Jamie McLeod-Skinner makes her case to Oregon 5th District voters

Editor’s Note: We invited both candidates to speak. Lori Chavez-DeRemer declined to participate.

Oregon’s 5th Congressional District is freshly redrawn and stretches from Clackamas County to Bend. New geographical coverage has now led to Republican Lori Chavez-DeRemer and Democrat Jamie McLeod-Skinner finding themselves in an extremely tight race, garnering national attention. Chavez-DeRemer is the former mayor of Happy Valley and a small business owner in health care. McLeod-Skinner an attorney and a regional emergency manager.

The following transcript was created by a computer and edited by a volunteer.

Dave Miller: This is Think Out Loud on OPB. I’m Dave Miller. We start today with the race for Oregon’s 5th Congressional District. It is an open seat because the seven term incumbent, Democrat Kurt Schrader, lost in the primary. This race has gotten national attention. It’s seen as a true and a rare toss up. So we invited the two major party candidates to join us for a debate. The Republican,

Lori Chavez-DeRemer, the former mayor of Happy Valley, said, ‘No,’ but the Democratic candidate, Jamie McLeod-Skinner, a small business owner and Regional Emergency Coordinator, said ‘Yes’, and she joins us now. Welcome back to Think Out Loud.

Jamie McLeod-Skinner: Thanks so much, Dave, really delighted to be here and have this conversation.

Miller: In some ways, you are asking voters to have you represent a very new district. The lines were heavily impacted by redistricting. It no longer goes to the coast. So it stretches from the Portland Metro area, cities like Lake Oswego and Milwaukee, all the way down to booming population centers in Deschutes County into Redmond and Bend. What unifies this district in terms of issues?

McLeod-Skinner: The core issue that everyone is concerned about is rebounding from the COVID economy. So working people are really trying to get back on their feet following the international pandemic. Also the core issues of protecting our democracy, protecting our fundamental personal freedoms, including our right to reproductive health care. And also addressing the climate crisis. So depending on where you are in the district, some issues carry more weight than others. But those are really the things that voters are talking about throughout. And what’s really exciting about this newly drawn district, is that it’s very purple. It’s a microcosm of our state. It’s a microcosm of our country. And if we can do it right here, we can get politics and our democracy back on track again.

Miller: You mentioned a lot of issues. We should dig into them, one by one. Let’s start with economic ones. Prices this year have risen at the fastest rate that they have in 40 years, so inflation is top of mind for many voters. Does Congress have a meaningful role in reducing or addressing inflation, or is this mainly an issue for central bankers or the executive branch?

McLeod-Skinner: Congress absolutely has a role and there’s many different ways that Congress can play into this. Congress actually has taken some steps already. But the bottom line is, hard working Oregonians are struggling with high cost of living, wages have not kept up, and quite frankly, we’ve seen enough out-of-touch millionaires in Congress. It’s really important for folks who represent working families. And I’m really proud to have the support of virtually every labor group in the state who have a representative, someone fighting for working families.

Some of the costs that we’re looking at, we’re looking at supply chain issues. So getting some of those things back on track. But we’re seeing a lot of price gouging. Prescription drug prices, that was a huge discussion in the primary. There’s an opportunity to lower prescription drug prices. That is something that Oregonians support across party lines. I don’t take corporate PAC money because I believe in accountability to voters. Making sure we’re covering those basic costs, the cost of housing. I’m working on an affordable home ownership project right now that will be a pilot project, a model project. So bringing down those everyday costs, housing, healthcare, childcare, those things that are creating a real barrier for working families to get back on their feet. Those are key issues that Oregonians are talking about. And my opponent supported the huge Trump tax cuts, saying, ‘It’ll be good for some of us’. Well, it’s not good for most of us. And so we should be looking at the child tax credit instead of the Trump tax cuts.

Miller: You mentioned housing affordability. What exactly would you do to make home ownership more in reach for people?

McLeod-Skinner: It’s about partnerships, and this is work I’ve done on a council before. When I was on the city council, I partnered with the school district and partnered with an affordable housing developer to develop affordable housing for teachers. Congress can impact this through the Community Development Block Grant funds, The CDBG funds, to allocate resources to cities, create those partnerships. The project I’m working on right now, it’s in Southern Oregon. It’s part of the carryover work I was doing in wildfire recovery down in Southern Oregon last year. And it is a public-private-partnership essentially, that is establishing an 85 unit, affordable home ownership housing development for folks to be able to afford to get into housing. Because one of the disturbing trends we’re seeing across the country, again,  this is where Congress can step in and create some controls, is we have mega corporations buying up a lot of the housing that is available and then forcing people only into rental situations and then cranking up the prices. In Albany, I met a woman who is homeless in a shelter. She’d never been homeless before. She worked full time. She just got priced out of the market. So we need more availability, in the long term, and some of those programs that Congress can invest in.

Miller: How do you prevent some investor from buying any particular property?

McLeod-Skinner: The model that we’re looking at is actually a land-trust model. It’s working with Proud Ground [proudground.org ], who actually works up in the metro area. There are techniques you can use to maintain affordability over time, so someone doesn’t go in, buy a house and just flip it.

Miller: In other words, the public sector somehow would buy it. You’re not preventing someone from doing it, you’re just saying the public sector will do it instead?

McLeod-Skinner: No, it’s the public sector providing enough resources for the cost of infrastructure. My wife’s uncle is actually in housing development and has talked about affordable housing not being able to pencil out right now. But if you inject some public resources, you can actually establish the requirements as part of these public-private partnerships, and working with nonprofits, as well, to make sure that you can build the housing. But that it would be an ownership model, more of a community-based ownership model, land-trust model, is what we’re using down in Southern Oregon.

Miller: You mentioned safeguarding elections in the list of issues that you say, unify your district. What election related legislation would you support as a member of Congress?

McLeod-Skinner: The Voting Rights Act is critically important to move forward on, and there are also some of the steps that were recently taken to make sure that we don’t have a repeat of January 6th. There have been some recent steps that Congress has moved forward on, but we also need to make sure that access to voting rights...we’re fortunate here in Oregon voting by mail. We’ve got great systems in place. A lot of Americans don’t have that, nationally. So making sure we’re protecting the right to vote and then also establishing additional opportunities and helping to resource those, so Americans have access to the right to vote. I will also say though, part of protecting our fundamental rights is making sure that unions can organize as well. Things like the Pro Act [Protecting the Right to Organize Act] are really important to move forward on as well.

Miller: What do you see as a way to get what you just described to pass in a bipartisan way, or simply to pass? I mean, what you’ve just described there is broad support among Democrats and very little support among Republicans. What are you suggesting as a way to change that?

McLeod-Skinner: One of the things that I’ve been able to do as a rural Democrat is I work very closely across party lines, in Central Oregon, on some of the key issues that folks in Central Oregon are concerned about. So some of the wildfire concerns, drought issues. When we stay away from buzzwords, and we focus on the needs that communities have, we get overwhelming support across party lines. And so it’s really twofold. It’s one, developing relationships with your colleagues and finding out how to help them move forward on these positive measures. But even more importantly, is doing a better job of connecting with voters across the political divide, across the urban-rural divide, and creating that ‘ground up’ pressure on legislators to move forward on things that are just good for our working families.

Miller: Well, but sticking specifically with election legislation, what would you do to turn this into a bipartisan issue when it truly is not right now?

McLeod-Skinner: There are some things that are very much bipartisan issues. Things that are related, and can be tied in. Things like members of Congress not being able to trade stocks, making sure we’re talking about some of the campaign finance measures that are wildly popular across party lines. The first part is really more effectively communicating these issues and talking about the ideas in rural areas with voters across the country and building that ‘from the ground up’ pressure. Then if we change the name of legislation or we have more of a partnership in developing bipartisan legislation that ties in some of these other pieces, that’s I think how we move forward. And that’s something that I would be, I think, a real asset to folks in Congress, in general. Yes, to Democrats, but also Congress in general because of my experience in rural areas.

Miller: If you’re just tuning in, we’re talking right now with Jamie McLeod-Skinner, the Democratic candidate for Oregon’s 5th Congressional Seat. We also invited the Republican Lori Chavez-DeRemer, the former mayor of Happy Valley, to join this conversation, this debate, as we intended, but she said, ‘No’. Jamie McLeod-Skinner, you also mentioned abortion laws as one of the issues that is at the top of your list. How would you approach abortion related legislation at the federal level as a member of Congress?

McLeod-Skinner: There’s no clearer distinction this race than on this issue. And my opponent wants to take away our fundamental rights and I want to protect them. My opponent celebrated the overturning of Roe v. Wade and has said she would vote to ban abortion at six weeks – that’s before most women even know they’re pregnant.

I would work to codify Roe into law. And we know for a fact that this legislation it’s coming up next year, depending on the outcome of the election. It will come before Congress next year. And if Republicans are in a majority, they will vote to ban abortion nationwide. Right now in Oregon, we’re now, with Roe being overturned, it’s now down to states’ rights, so we’re protected, here in Oregon. But with national legislation, we will lose those protections. I would work to, and work with my colleagues to codify Roe. This is actually again, a bipartisan issue. You talk to a lot of Republicans who are very afraid of not having the right to abortion healthcare. It’s part of our fundamental personal freedoms, and independence as well, simply saying, that government should not be telling us what to do with our bodies or when to start our families.

Miller: We have talked a fair amount on this show, in recent years, about water scarcity and the ongoing and worsening effects of a drought. This is not just a state issue, though obviously, this is a national issue or, or an international one. Aquifers don’t pay attention. They’re not aware of state lines. What would you do as a member of Congress with respect to water?

McLeod- Skinner: This is a huge area of interest for me and I’ve worked on watershed issues back from when I went to graduate school in Regional Planning, my law degree is focused on water law and Indian law. There’s multiple steps here. But a lot of water law, state law, and so there’s things that we need partnerships with the state. Of course, when it crosses either international lines or state lines, it becomes a federal issue. But the point you’re making, aquifers and even the climate impacts, the trajectory we’re on right now has us racing toward the cliff.

We need to be taking interim partnership steps. We also need to be establishing long term solutions. I actually serve on the Oregon Watershed Enhancement Board, and we’re taking steps right now to build up some of the partnerships to protect resources on a local and regional level and part of that is through state funding and state resources. So at the federal level we can be investing in better use of water efficiency. We can make sure that we’re working on legislation to protect our natural resources and those ecosystems that help to both naturally treat water and then also store water. They’re bipartisan issues again, because we’re seeing our family farms going under, we’re seeing wildfire literally burn down our homes.

Miller: These are just some of the many pieces of the larger issue of climate change. How would you approach climate change as a member of Congress?

McLeod- Skinner: There’s short and long term solutions, steps we need to be taking. In the short term, we need to make sure we are protecting people because the effects are here, now, and we’re seeing them all around us, and that’s part of the work I’m doing with the state right now in emergency preparedness. There’s also the work I did last year in wildfire recovery. I led wildfire recovery in Southern Oregon, just down the road from where I finished high school in a community that lost a third of its homes and businesses to wildfire. So there’s that recovery piece.

In the long term, for addressing the long term trajectory that we’re on, we need to be building a 21st century renewable energy grid with redundant systems so that we’re able to maintain the robustness of our grid, but we need to be able to get us off this trajectory we’re on. There’s investments, many were already actually made with the Inflation Reduction Act. We now need to be able to put those into place. That’s another key part of legislation. It’s one thing to allocate the resources. It’s another thing to make sure that they have the impact on the ground that we’re looking to have. So utilizing those allocations, building out that 21st century clean renewable energy infrastructure, and then also investing in many of the steps that we know we need to be taking to get us off the trajectory that we’re on.

Miller: How would you approach federal gun laws as a Representative of, as you noted, a pretty purple district?

McLeod-Skinner: The conversations we’re having now are not about guns versus no guns. The conversations we’re having is about responsible gun ownership versus keeping our community safe and actually recognizing the threats to our communities without responsible gun ownership. My dad hunted to put food on our table. My father-in-law grew up hunting in Eastern Oregon. Again, this is about responsible gun ownership and there’s some key steps we need to be taking. Safe storage of firearms. When I was a kid, I went to high school, I had someone I played basketball with, she ended up taking her own life because she had access to her dad’s firearm. These things are personal. We need to close the loopholes on violent history background checks. These are common sense things that gun owners will tell you they want to see. Banning difficult to trace ghost guns. Then also having a robust discussion on weapons of war. And whether it’s reinstating a ban, whether it’s limiting assault weapons to firing ranges, or at the very minimum, increasing the minimum age. The shootings that are in the news all the time, the shooting we had in Bend, was about someone who if we had raised the minimum age, would not have legally had access to a gun. So these are steps we can take.

And lastly on this, well my opponent refuses to even discuss this issue, but my mom is a retired teacher. She taught in Southern Central Oregon. Every time there’s a shooting, I need to follow up with her because she essentially has PTSD on these things. She remembers going through these drills with kids, and them looking her in the eye and asking if she would stand between them and a shooter. And she said, ‘Yes’. So every time there’s a shooting, it’s very personal for her, and so many teachers.

Miller: I want to turn briefly to foreign policy. This almost seems like a quaint question now because the US continues to use drone strikes in various countries in the world that have not been specifically authorized by Congress. But what would it take for you, as a potential member of Congress, to authorize the use of military force?

McLeod-Skinner: We live in both a very beautiful and very dangerous world. I actually began my public service over in Bosnia and Kosovo after the war managing the reconstruction of schools and hospitals in the post-war environment. I know what this looks like. I did not serve in  uniform. I’d actually come out as a young adult, so back then that wasn’t an option for me. But I have seen the impact of war and I take this very, very seriously. I really appreciate the steps that Congress and the President is taking now in Ukraine to essentially keep us out of World War III and to help Ukrainians defend themselves and address the pushback on Putin. We need to have a very pragmatic look at threats to our country and to our allies and make sure that we have protections in place.

I always believe in using the route of diplomacy first. But we also know that this can be a dangerous world. Having the resources, making sure our troops and those who protect us are well resourced, have the resources they need, working in partnership with our international partners to make sure we’re being proactive in our diplomacy, but also in our response when necessary. These are all things that I think are critically important. And then lastly, this is a decision for Congress. Going to war and acts of war need to be in the hands of Congress and  not in the executive branch.

Miller: Just briefly, who is a member of Congress that you admire and why?

McLeod-Skinner: There are multiple members that I admire. My wife’s favorite member of Congress is Lauren Underwood and she says even if I’m elected, I’ll still be her second favorite member of Congress. And because she said she just puts her nose to the grindstone, and gets it done. That’s the kind of approach we need.

When it comes to outreach to communities and the ability to connect across the urban rural divide, I’ve always been a fan of Cheri Bustos in terms of her ability to connect with folks. Katie Porter is someone who tells it like it is and is really candid about the threats that we’re facing. And I will also say, right now, Liz Cheney; well, I would argue ‘til I’m blue in the face on many, many policy issues. I deeply admire and respect those who are committed to protecting our Democracy over their own careers, and she has shown a level of patriotism that we should all admire and respect and appreciate. I’ve met so many Republicans who say they feel like their party has left them. Those of us who are committed to on-the-ground solutions and protecting our democracy, there’s still a home for those folks.

Miller: Jamie McLeod-Skinner. Thanks very much.

McLeod-Skinner: Thank you so much.

Miller: Jamie McLeod-Skinner is a Democratic candidate for Oregon’s 5th Congressional District.

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